Everything Las Vegas Raiders DT Christian Wilkins said Today

Moments ago, the Las Vegas Raiders superstar DT Christian Wilkins spoke, and we have everything he said.

Las Vegas Raiders DT Christian Wilkins / Darrell Craig Harris, Sports Illustrated

HENDERSON, Nev.--The Las Vegas Raiders opened the much-anticipated 2024 NFL regular season with a disappointing loss to their AFC West rival, the Los Angeles Chargers.

There are legitimate excuses for the struggles of the 2023 Raider Nation offense, but there are none for what we saw on Sunday.

In the NFL, there are no moral victories. You win, or you lose. This loss will hurt for the entire season, as did the offensive debacle last season against the Minnesota Vikings.

QB Gardner Minshew said it best, “We beat ourselves.”  He was 100% correct.

Moments ago, the Las Vegas Raiders superstar DT Christian Wilkins spoke, and we have everything he said.

You can watch the entire podcast below:

Below is the transcript of Wilkins' entire press conference from earlier today.

Q: I know a loss is a loss, but are you able to separate that from how well you played yesterday?

Wilkins: “I mean, obviously, you work so hard throughout the offseason, and you work so hard in training camp and try to build the right stuff to produce wins. But something else we do talk about here, is the process over the result. Obviously, you want to win. You expect to win every game, or else, there's no point of going out there. But, yeah, once you look at the tape and once you take a step back from it all, you can start to process those things a little bit. Even sometimes when you win, you don't play great. You don't play perfect. Obviously, that’s what you want, win and loss columns, but there are things to find. There are positives or lessons to learn from when, win, loss, or draw.”

Q: How frustrating does it get when the majority of the game you're able to stop the run and then it's like one or two plays here or there, and they pop a big one?

Wilkins: “ Yeah, that's just football. And that's what keeps you humble in this game; you never have all the answers. The job's never done until it's completely done, but that's just football. That's just how the game goes. But that's kind of what it was yesterday and just things we can learn from as a team, and things we can learn from as a unit and just build off of it moving forward.”

Q: Obviously, you gotsome reps with him in preseason and practice, but it'sjust different in the regular season game. Now having a full regular season game with Maxx Crosby, how confident or how encouraged are you about you two as a duo?

Wilkins: “Yeah, we can definitely be better. It was good to kind of have a full game together and kind of make adjustments as we went, just as a defense and as a defensive line, and kind of talk to each other and really still continue to build that rapport and that relationship. He’s an easy guy to play with because he's always going to bring energy and is always about the right stuff. And that's the thing I respect the most about him. But it's different when real bullets are flying. So, we'll continue to learn how to improve playing with each other and try to continue to lead this defense and this team.”

Q: You've played Lamar Jackson before. As a defensive lineman, his ability to cut and move at the last second. What are some things that make him so difficult to defend?

Wilkins: “Yeah, he's definitely as good as it gets, as dynamic as it gets. The definition of a dual threat. He presents a great challenge to any defense in this league. So, I'm sure the coaches will work hard. Pat [Graham] will work hard to get a good game plan together, so that way we can try and limit some of those things that he does. But even then, it's different when you still got to go against him. But I believe in our guys, and I believe in our coaches and our scheme. So, we’re going to rebound and lock in and do what we got to do this week to try to put ourselves in the best position.”

Q: You guys got pretty thin quickly at defensive end with Malcolm Koonce going on IR and then Tyree Wilson going down yesterday. The lack of depth out there, how does that affect what you guys are trying to accomplish inside on the pass rush?

Wilkins: “Again, that's just football. That's just how it goes. That kind of stuff's a part of the game, but it can’t really slow us down. We just got to step up more on the interior knowing one of your brothers is down, or things might look a little different, or you might be thin in some areas. You just got to continue to lean on that brotherhood that we're building and understand we don't have to be necessarily superheroes, but we definitely just got to be more locked in and focused and make sure we're doing our part and playing hard, playing fast, playing physical, and being real detailed with our work.”

Q: Have you spoken with Tyreek Hill since yesterday?

Wilkins: “I have not. I’ve obviously seen that, but I'm not really going to speak on any of that stuff, just anything that goes on around the league. You see stuff and this is always tough to deal with, but I hope all that stuff just kind of gets dealt with and handled.”

Q: You are a leader on this team. The young players look up to you. After you watch the film. I'm assuming you've seen the film already, but was there any young player that you felt like really stood out and had a good game?

Wilkins: "Yeah, I thought JB [Jakorian Bennett] played a pretty solid game, and he did some stuff and gave us some energy. And I thought he was very poised, especially for a second, year player, a young guy, that was encouraging to see. And yeah, I kind of expected that from him really, he's had a good training camp, he's had a good offseason. So, I would say JB did some pretty solid things for us."

Q: Christian, what are some positives that the defense can take into next weekend and build on before the Baltimore game?

Wilkins: "Yeah, I think we can definitely do it. We have the guys to do it. We have the leadership, we have everything you want to be able to do it and just continue to put a good product out there each and every week. It's just the conditioning to be able to sustain it, drive after drive, no matter what the situation is, where the ball ends up, any of that. No matter how many times we've got to go there, both mental, physical conditioning and just staying even keeled. And I thought we just did a good job of kind of next play, not flinching, not blinking and just kept playing ball. So, that was definitely good to see, and it's encouraging moving forward."

Q: When the offense is struggling to put up points, is there ever a conversation on the defensive side, like let's amp it up a little bit more try to get that ball back?

Wilkins: "You just definitely continue to emphasize just the just the pillars of our defense and the things we're built on, kind of just lock in on your technique a little bit more. You don't really necessarily think about stuff like that as the game goes on, you're just like whenever you've got to go out there, 'Let's just get off the field.' That's our job to get the ball back to the offense. So, I mean that's all the real big focus is and that's where I felt guys did a good job of just being locked in for the most part."

Q: Antonio Pierce said earlier that you guys are playing football, not boxing. And yet when things happen like it happened in the end zone yesterday, how hard is that to compartmentalize in the moment?

Wilkins: "Yeah, that is true. It's definitely like you don't ever really want stuff like that to happen. You hope it doesn't happen, and if anything like that does happen, you hope it's handled it the right way and that it's separated as quick, fast as possible. But yeah, sometimes things like that just happen. It is football, sometimes when you've got all these alpha males out there, there's going to be those situations, but when they happen, like I said, you just try to handle them the best way possible and just get it off the field, end it and move on."

Q: Yesterday was your first regular season in front of Raider Nation. Being a Raider, estimates of 70% of the crowd were Raiders. Would you just give us your impression being in another stadium with that crowd?

Wilkins: "No, I thought that was awesome, definitely just a lot of great energy. And again, obviously disappointing coming in a losing fashion, but I just thought the energy was great. And just my first game as a Taider was a fun one, and I'm always going to remember it for the rest of my life. So far, everything has been a lot of what I expected and even more, a lot of what I've heard from guys before I came here. Even like talking to Jenk [John Jenkins] and Adam Butler, they're like, 'Hey, it's like that,' who are my former teammates, just talking to them and kind of things that everyone talked about. I mean, you see it a little bit, so it's nice. I definitely will remember this game just being my first in a Raiders uniform.”

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